At a ceremony held yesterday, the Grand Prix of the International Competition at the 50th Tampere Film Festival went to the experimental documentary Ceuta’s Gate (Bab Sebta) by Randa Maroufi (France/Morocco). Already a winner at numerous festivals, including last year’s Winterthur Kurzfilmtage, where it also won a Grand Prix, the film explores Ceuta (a Spanish enclave on Moroccan soil), and interrogates issues of identity, immigration and ideology. The international jury said that the film “shows the absurdity of invisible borders, lines and maps created by human society, and the roles these boundaries force us to play”.

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Best Animation was handed to Something to Remember (Något att minnas) by Niki Lindroth von Bahr (Sweden), an animation that follows in the footsteps of her multi-award-winning The Burden with anthropomorphic puppets taking us into a surreal world that examines some very human concerns of everyday life. The win was particularly apt for the festival, as von Bahr (alongside fellow animator Joanna Rytel) was the subject of a retrospective during Tampere. Best Documentary went to All Cats Are Grey in the Dark (Nachts Sind Alle Katzen Grau) by Lasse Linder (Switzerland), which also has numerous wins under its belt, including the main prize at the 2019 edition of Toronto.

Wassim Geagea’s Omé (Lebanon/Qatar) received the Best Fiction Award, and a Special Mention was given to All Inclusive by Teemu Nikki (Finland). Memorable (Mémorable) by Bruno Collet (France), an animated short known by many due to its spot as an Academy Award nominee, was put forward as the Tampere short film candidate for the 2020 European Film Awards, and Maradona’s Legs (Ijrain Maradona) by Firas Khoury (Palestine/Germany) received the Audience Award in the International Competition.

In the National Competition, Maija Blåfield’s The Fantastic won the Main Prize in the under-30-minute category. The documentary sees former North Koreans describe their experiences of watching forbidden foreign films and what they imagined the world outside to be like, on the basis of said movies. The national jury described the film as “a fascinating matrix of ideas and images”.

The Main Prize in the over-30-minute category went to Anna-Karin Grönroos’ documentary Conductivity (Orkesterin edessä), a film that is “in tune with the emotions and senses of its protagonists”.

The Special Prize in the National Competition for under-30-minute films went to Teemu Niukkanen’s fiction Are You Hungry? (Onko sulla nälkä?), while Elina Talvensaari’s documentary Lady Time[+leggi anche: recensionescheda film] (Neiti aika) was awarded the Church Media Foundation Prize and the Special Prize in the category of films over 30 minutes.

To Teach a Bird to Fly by Minna Rainio and Mark Roberts won the Risto Jarva Prize and became the Tampere nominee for the European Audience Award. The film combines documentary material with fiction and is set in a dystopian world in the near future. The feature-length documentary Eye to Eye[+leggi anche: intervista: John Websterscheda film] by John Webster won the Audience Award in the National Competition.

The national jury was made up of Marika Kecskeméti (YLE Television, Finland), Tinja Ruusuvuori (filmmaker, Finland) and Neil Young (journalist/curator, UK).

The 51st edition of the Tampere Film Festival will run from 10-14 March 2021.

The full list of winners is as follows:

International Competition

Grand PrixCeuta’s Gate - Randa Maroufi (France/Morocco)

Best AnimationSomething to Remember - Niki Lindroth von Bahr (Sweden)

Best DocumentaryAll Cats Are Grey in the Dark - Lasse Linder (Switzerland)

Best FictionOmé - Wassim Geagea (Lebanon/Qatar)

Audience AwardMaradona’s Legs - Firas Khoury (Palestine/Germany)

Special Mention (Fiction)All Inclusive - Teemu Nikki (Finland)

Tampere Short Film Candidate for the European Film Awards 2020Memorable - Bruno Collet (France)